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Afghanistan and NATO-led forces have reached a deal on foreign troops leaving a key strategic district near Kabul, coalition forces said, but a controversial expulsion order against U.S. special forces from the entire province remained unclear.

Tens of thousands of grieving supporters of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez continued to file past his glass covered casket Thursday, vowing to keep his socialist revolution alive. Mana Rabiee reports.

World Wrap: Bomb attacks in Baghdad kill nearly sixty people on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq war, an alleged chemical attack would be a first in the Syrian conflict, and the International Criminal Court comes under fire for securing just one conviction in over a decade. Read more on today's top stories here.

Iraqis examine damage inflicted on their house by a car bomb attack in AL-Mashtal district in Baghdad, March 19, 2013. Car bombs and a suicide blast hit Shi'ite districts of Baghdad and south of Iraq's capital on Tuesday, killing at least 50 people on the 10th anniversary of the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein. REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen

Firefighters hose down a destroyed vehicle at the site of a suicide bomb attack in Baghdad's Sadr City March 19, 2013. A dozen car bombs and suicide blasts tore into Shi'ite districts in Baghdad and south of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, killing more than 50 people on the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein. REUTERS/Wissm al-Okili

Residents gather at the site of a car bomb attack in the AL-Mashtal district in Baghdad March 19, 2013. A series of coordinated car bombs and blasts hit Shi'ite districts across Baghdad and south of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, killing at least 25 people on the tenth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion. REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen

Insight: International court's credibility in dock over failed prosecutions

The collapse of the International Criminal Court's case against an ally of Kenya's president-elect Uhuru Kenyatta is the latest blow to a tribunal under close scrutiny for securing just one conviction since it was set up more than a decade ago.

Cyprus reworks divisive bank tax, delays voteCypriot ministers were trying to revise a plan to seize money from bank deposits before a parliamentary vote on Tuesday that will secure the island's financial rescue or could lead to its default, with reverberations across the euro zone. (Read on.)

The State Department confirmed on Monday that Syrian government aircraft fired rockets into northern Lebanon and it described the incident as "a significant escalation."

"We can confirm what you are seeing in the press, that regime jets and helicopters did fire rockets into northern Lebanon," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters at her daily briefing. "This constitutes a significant escalation in the violations of Lebanese sovereignty that the Syrian regime has been guilty of. These kinds of violations of sovereignty are absolutely unacceptable."

Four Sunni Muslim scholars were beaten up in two separate attacks in Beirut on Sunday night, testing a fragile peace between the sects and factions that fought Lebanon's 15-year civil war.

Mazen Hariri and Ahmed Fekhran, both scholars at Lebanon's highest Sunni seat of learning, Dar al-Fatwa, were attacked by a group of men in the mainly Shi'ite Khandak al-Ghamik area after they left the Mohammed al-Amin mosque in downtown Beirut, security sources said on Monday.

AMMAN, March 13 (Reuters) - Heavy fighting erupted in an area between Damascus and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Wednesday in what could be a new battlefront between Syrian troops and rebels, opposition sources said.

Rebel fighters attacked an army barracks manned by elite Republican Guards and the Fourth Mechanised Division, headed by President Bashar al-Assad's brother Maher, in Khan Sheih, 6 km (4 miles) from the outskirts of Damascus, civilian activists and an opposition military source said.

VIENNA, March 12 (Reuters) - A month after North Korea's nuclear test, a monitoring agency said on Tuesday it was highly unlikely to find any "smoking gun" radioactive traces from the blast, potentially leaving key questions about the device unresolved.

The lack of this kind of scientific evidence may make it difficult to determine what fissile material was used in the isolated Asian state's third nuclear test, which was detected by seismic monitors.

On International Women’s Day we celebrate the many milestones on the road to gender equality, and recommit ourselves to fight for the rights and opportunities of women and girls around the world.

Empowering women isn’t just the right thing to do – it’s the smart thing to do. When women succeed, nations are more safe, more secure, and more prosperous. Over the last year, we’ve seen women and girls inspiring communities and entire countries to stand up for freedom and justice, and I’m proud of my Administration’s efforts to promote gender equality worldwide.

As a nation, we’ve launched new efforts to promote women’s economic empowerment and political participation, to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, and to strengthen our commitment to helping more women participate in peacebuilding and conflict resolution. We are promoting food security initiatives that recognize the rights and needs of women farmers, and ensuring that women and girls are at the center of global health programs. And we will continue to focus on empowering women and girls at home and abroad.

We’ve also worked with a wide range of partners – from the United Nations and civil society groups to the private sector – to advance this important agenda. Because when it comes to creating a world

Women, dressed in fifties-style outfits, cool off their feet in a swimming pool during the 19th Rockin' Race Jamboree International Festival in Torremolinos, southern Spain, February 9, 2013. REUTERS/Jon Nazca

Within hours of Hugo Chavez's death, makeshift altars were going up in homes and on street corners around Venezuela with candles, photos and offerings for the late president.Weeping beside his coffin, supporters are likening him to independence hero Simon Bolivar and even Jesus Christ. Ministers quote his words and precepts in reverential tones.

Having fostered a cult of personality during his extraordinary life, Chavez is fast being deified in death.

At least two dozen heads of state were due to attend Hugo Chavez's funeral on Friday during an outpouring of grief for the charismatic but divisive Venezuelan leader who changed the face of politics in South America. Among the attendees are Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In response to North Korea's third nuclear test, the U.N. Security Council voted on Thursday to tighten financial restrictions on Pyongyang and crack down on its attempts to ship and receive banned cargo in breach of U.N. sanctions.

The U.S.-drafted resolution, approved unanimously by the 15-nation council, was the product of three weeks of negotiations between the United States and China after North Korea's February 12 test.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a former South Korean foreign minister, said the resolution "sent an unequivocal message to (North Korea) that the international community will not tolerate its pursuit of nuclear weapons."

"The CITGO-Venezuela Heating Oil Program has been one of the most important energy assistance efforts in the United States. This year, as families across the Eastern Seaboard struggle to recover from the losses caused by Hurricane Sandy, this donation becomes even more significant," said CITGO President and CEO Alejandro Granado . "This energy assistance program is an integral example of the humanitarian principles endorsed by the CITGO ultimate shareholder, Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela."

During the years of the program, it has helped more than 1.7 million people stay warm during the coldest months of winter, by donating more than 200 million gallons of heating oil worth more than $400 million. It is estimated that this year the program will help more than 100,000 families in 25 states plus the District of Columbia, including members of more than 240 Native American communities, and will reach more than 200 homeless shelters.

CITGO statement: "President Hugo Chávez of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela leaves behind a legacy of support for the underprivileged and promotion of social justice that transcends geographical boundaries. We at CITGO Petroleum Corporation are deeply saddened by the news of his passing. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and the people of Venezuela in this time of grief."

In Cuban workplaces, schools and barrios on Wednesday plans were being worked out to release hundreds of thousands of residents on Thursday to pay their last respects to deceased Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez at memorial services around the Caribbean island.

Official newspapers were printed in black, flags flew at half mast and many people watched the Venezuelan sponsored Telesur news channel as Venezuelans mourned. Talk centered on Chavez, his death and what it might portend for the future.

No other people, with the exception of Venezuelans, owe as much to Chavez as the Cubans, who view him as one of the region’s all time greatest revolutionaries.

Indeed, the main memorial for Chavez on Thursday will be held at the Jose Marti memorial in the emblematic Revolution Square, which has served as a venue for paying one’s last respects only to a handful of Revolutionary heroes over the years, and just one foreigner, the legendary Che Guevara.

WARSAW, March 6 (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande said on Wednesday that a military campaign against Islamist rebels in Mali had killed two "terrorist leaders", without clarifying whether he was referring to two al Qaeda commanders reported dead last week.

"We have launched an offensive in two directions, the first in the Ifoghas mountain range, and there we have had successes that will be further confirmed in the coming days, including the killing of terrorist leaders," Hollande told a news conference in Warsaw where he was attending a regional leaders event.

Chad has said that its soldiers, fighting alongside the French, have killed two top commanders from al Qaeda's north African wing, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid and Mokhtar Belmokhtar, but Paris has so far said it could not confirm the reports.

CARACAS, March 6 (Reuters) - The coffin of deceased Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez was brought out of a military hospital onto the streets of Caracas on Wednesday, where grieving multitudes gathered to honor him.

Soldiers placed the coffin on a car, where it was driven outside of the hospital. "Chavez to the pantheon!" shouted supporters, referring to a mausoleum he had built to house the remains of independence hero Simon Bolivar.

Authorities have not yet said where Chavez will be buried after his state funeral on Friday.

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa (front C) is joined by Assembly President Fernando Cordero (front R), Vice President Lenin Moreno (front L) and government officials as he announces a three-day national mourning period in Quito on March 5, 2013. REUTERS/Gary Granja

Learn about the man Chavez named as his heir apparent in December, Nicolas Maduro:

Former bus driver and union leader Nicolas Maduro followed a simple strategy when he filled in for cancer-stricken Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez over the past three months: copy his boss's policies, his style and even his fierce rhetoric.

Now that Chavez is dead, Maduro will almost certainly stick with the same approach as he tries to win a presidential election and inherit Chavez's self-styled socialist revolution.

Reuters correspondents tell us the streets were largely deserted overnight in wealthier areas for fear of looting. Meanwhile, devastated Chavistas weep, mourn, and gather in public squares around the country. A crowd gathers at the military hospital where Chavez's body will be taken in a procession to a military academy. Military barracks fired 21-gun salutes this morning.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov writes in a condolence book as he visits the Venezuelan embassy to pay his tribute to the late Hugo Chavez in Moscow, March 6, 2013. Venezuelan President Chavez's death has unleashed a flood of emotional tributes that his allies hope will help ensure the survival of his self-styled socialist revolution when voters elect a successor. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Residents read the news of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on the newspapers in a store in Sao Paulo on March 6, 2013. Chavez died on Tuesday after a two-year battle with cancer, ending 14 years of tumultuous, divisive rule that won him passionate support from the poor but the hatred of business leaders and wealthier Venezuelans. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker

wenty years ago, Hugo Chavez launched the most powerful movement in Venezuela's history with an improvised speech of just 90 seconds.

Bound for prison after a failed February 4, 1992, coup that was the culmination of years of conspiring within the military, the then-lieutenant colonel was allowed by his captors to address the nation to exhort fellow dissident soldiers to surrender.

GENEVA - The United Nations' main human rights forum observed a minute's silence on Wednesday for the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez whose record it has often criticized over the years.

The U.N. Human Rights Council has voiced repeated concerns about freedom of expression, lack of independence of the judiciary, restrictions on activists, and arbitrary detentions in Venezuela under Chavez who died on Tuesday.

The ambassador of Cuba - which has declared three days of mourning for its ally Chavez - led diplomats in Geneva in observing the minute's silence.

Over at the Economist, the Americas View blog argues that an election within thirty days is a tall order, both technically and politically for Chavez's allies.

With millions of fervent supporters of Mr Chávez now grieving the loss of their “commander”—some of them heavily armed—the vice-president must know that he is playing with fire. Among his aims is presumably to hold together the heterogeneous coalition behind Mr Chávez’s leadership, by exaggerating the threat from its domestic and external adversaries. Despite their public show of unity, the factions within the “Bolivarian revolution” have different interests and ideologies. But they share the short-term goal of fending off an electoral challenge from an opposition that won 44% of the presidential vote last year.

WASHINGTON No negotiations can be held with North Korea until it improves its behavior, a White House official said on Wednesday, raising questions about U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's offer to begin talks with Pyongyang any time and without pre-conditions. | Video

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